Podcasters' Emporium

I was having an interesting conversation today with Adam Purcell from TheContentAlliance, about production schedules and how I have the time to produce the thirteen podcasts I currently have on the Lifestyle PodNetwork.

Adam was saying how he enjoys putting together the shows from a production sense, but it was the production side that was lagging. He commented that he had shows in the wings waiting to go out but they needed production. I wonder how many of you are in a similar situation.

The interesting thing is that with the network as it currently stands I am juggling production on a number of shows. I guess the saving grace right now is that I’m not tied down to a weekly or daily production schedule although that will be changing in the very near future. So what makes things different for me.

Well in terms of the network, I seek out subject matter experts for the shows I produce. Where I am involved as a co-host on a show, I double as a producer and ensure that I am getting the best quality program out on the day. So what does that involve?

It means sitting down ahead of time with my guest, and mapping out what that show might look like. We discuss key outcomes for the show – what some people might call the take-aways – and then we come up with a plan for getting to that destination and which paths of questioning we will take to get us there.

Pareto’s law comes into play here. A podcast should be 80% planning and 20% execution. I don’t mind if I spend the time out of the studio planning the podcast, so long as when we get in the studio it makes it a quick and effortless record. The upside of doing things this way – as we all know – is less time chopping out the crap.

The general rule for editing a final product is allow 4 times as long to edit your podcast as it took to record. So obviously the shorter your podcast is, the quicker it will be before you can get it in front of your audience.

Spare a moment for the people who produce one-and-a-half our shows every week. Dave Gray is one such person and I have watched him produce the Global Geek Podcast, now the Aussie Geek Podcast. He records his show each Sunday night with three co-hosts who are located in different locations around the globe. He manages to meet this demanding schedule with meticulous planning.

Dave produces a run-sheet which has all the different segments and the topics he wants to cover on the show. This is done in Google Docs (an online service that allows group collaboration). During the week he tracks his topics in a news service and the hosts have the opportunity to read up on the material ahead of the show.

This process means they can meet their rigorous production schedule (try editing a one-and-a-half our audio show every week), and still remain tight, relevant and interesting for the listener.

The other thing that allows me to get 13 shows up on the network is to have people who can help me with the production. Liz Mead is the second person to co-host network produced programs, which means I spend less time in the studio. I am investing time in Liz, who is doing brilliantly by the way, to ensure that she can produce, record and edit shows.

My purpose in doing this is to build a network model that remains sustainable over the long term. By investing in people, and allowing them to take-over the hosting and production roles means that there is a growing number of keen and skilled resources to help share the load.

Many hands make light work.